(RNS) — Daniel Akin, the president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, announced to students gathered for a chapel service on Tuesday (Oct. 14) that he plans to retire this summer.

Reading from a short letter — the same one he sent to the school’s trustees a day earlier — Akin said he planned to step down effective July 31, 2026. Speaking on behalf of his wife, Charlotte, too, he said: “We love this school. … We are filled with incredible gratitude and thanksgiving for God’s grace in bringing us here almost 22 years ago. It is time to hand off the baton of leadership to those whom God will raise up to lead this Great Commission school into the future.”

The occasion he chose was Southeastern’s 75th anniversary, which was celebrated on Tuesday on the campus in Wake Forest, a suburban town north of Raleigh, North Carolina.

Akin will turn 69 in January and has led the seminary — one of six in the Southern Baptist Convention — for the better part of his career. Last academic year, Southeastern had 2,263 students, half of them full-time equivalents, according to data from the Association of Theological Schools. That’s a 40% increase over 2004, the year Akin started when Southeastern had 1,619 students, an impressive number at a time when many seminaries are facing declining enrollment.

About a third of the seminary’s students — 776 — were studying for the Master of Divinity degree in the 2024-25 school year. Of those, 441 were full-time students.

Southeastern is now the third largest of the denomination’s six seminaries — after Midwestern in Kansas City, Missouri, and Southern in Louisville, Kentucky. The verdant campus, originally the site of Wake Forest University, also includes an undergraduate school, Judson College, with an enrollment of 1,603 students.

Though theologically conservative, Akin has nonetheless crafted a cheerful and genial public presence, preferring a more cooperative path within a denomination known for its combative pronouncements.

Still, he has not been reluctant to weigh in on controversial issues within the larger evangelical fold.

He has acknowledged the reality of structural racism and said change is needed to broaden the predominantly white ranks of SBC membership. Akin said one of the major goals at Southeastern is boosting the number of racial minority students.

Akin has also acknowledged the sins of sexual abuse in the denomination. When a former assistant accused the late Paul Pressler, one of the most influential evangelicals in the denomination, of sexual abuse, Akin said he believed the testimony of the victim. “We can’t deny the reality of the accusations.”

Ten years ago, he even agreed to do a video spot for Openly Secular, a group of atheists, freethinkers, agnostics and humanists, in which he said that no one should be discriminated against for their belief — or nonbelief.

A former athlete from Georgia, Akin once had dreams of playing baseball but after an injury he settled on ministry, graduating in 1980 from Criswell College in Dallas. He first came to Southeastern in 1992 as dean of students and then moved on to Southern Seminary, where he served as dean of the School of Theology, and senior vice president for academic administration for eight years. In 2004 he was chosen to replace Paige Patterson, one of the leaders of the conservative resurgence in the denomination, as president of Southeastern.

In his retirement letter, Akin noted, “I am often asked, ‘is it hard to be a seminary president?’ My answer is always the same: ‘Not for me.’ My answer is simply a testimony to the people that make up the Southeastern family.”

Akin and his wife have four adult children, all of whom are serving in ministry.

(National reporter Bob Smietana contributed to this report.)